Torihamu or Homemade Chicken "Ham"

27 Jan 2010 by maki

Torihamu (鶏ハム）or chicken ham is a recipe that was born and made popular on the internet. It was first popularized around 2001 or 2002, on an extremely popular and often wild and woolly Japanese community/forum site called 2ch or 2-channel (２ちゃんねる), sometime in 2001 or 2002.

I didn't try making torihamu for a long time, since I was skeptical that it would actually manage to turn low-fat, bland and often dry chicken breast meat into something ham-like. But I've been experimenting with different methods proposed on the Japanese internets, and am now convinced that it's well worthwhile making, especially for bento lovers. It is low in fat, has no chemical preservatives, and really lengthens the refrigerator shelf life of chicken. There's not much difference time and effort wise between making one or several, so it's really best to make a batch and freeze the extras. I make some when there is a sale on chicken breasts.

So, does it really make white chickem meat turn into ham? Well...that depends on your understanding of what ham should be like. I'd say yes, the torihamu does somewhat resemble cold cuts made from chicken or turkey meat.

Recipe: Torihamu - Homemade Japanese Chicken "Ham"

Note: I've given pretty detailed instructions here, so this recipe may seem long, but each step is quite easy and takes only a few minutes. However, the whole process takes 2 days plus cooking and cooling time. I've given a suggested schedule below for making this so you have a decent supply for the upcoming week if you wish.

This assumes that you are using boneless, skinned chicken breasts that weigh around 250g or about half a pound each. Adjust the quantities proportionately for larger or smaller chicken breasts, as well as for doing a batch of breasts.

Ingredients:

dried or fresh herbs of your choice, finely chopped if fresh. I like thyme.

Short directions

I've put in a lot of description below to make everything as clear as possible, but it's really a dead simple recipe:

Season the chicken with salt and honey or sugar, plus herbs and spices of your choice

Marinate for 48 hours

>Wash off surface salt from the chicken and soak to de-salinate

Poach or bakw the chicken.

Detailed directions

Everything you need to know about making torihamu, step by step!

Step 1: Prepping and marinating the chicken

Trim off any fat or sinews on the chicken breasts. You may want to cut them in half if they are much bigger than half a pound each.

In a sturdy ziplock bag or vacuum sealing bag, put in the amount of honey and salt that you need for the amount of chicken breast you'll be processing. For instance if you have 4 breasts use 4 tablespoons of honey and 6 teaspoons of salt. Squish the bag around a bit to mix the honey and salt. Alternatively, you can assign one chicken breast per bag (do this if you want to experiment with different herb/spice flavors), in which case each bag should have 1 tbs. of honey and 1 1/2 tsp. of salt.

Put the chicken breasts in, one by one, and squish them around in the bag to completely coat them completely with the honey-salt mixture. At this point you can add the black pepper and/or any herbs or spices that you like to the bag with the chicken. I like dried thyme the best. You can try tarragon, crushed red chili peppers, "steak mix" spices, any of Emeril's best, and so on. For the most versatile and neutral flavor though, stick to just black pepper. Once the herbs and spices are added, squish the chicken in the bag aroun again to coat.

Squeeze out as much air as you can, or suck the air out with your vacuum packing appliance. Seal the bags, and leave the chicken to marinate in the refrigerator for __48 hours__ or 2 full days. (You can vary this time, as I'll explain in the Variations below.)

Step 2: De-salinating the chicken

Once they are done marinating, take the chicken breasts out of the ziplock bag or bags, and rinse the chicken well under cold running water. Then, leave the breasts to soak in plenty of cold water, for 1 hour. This soaking process gets rid of excess salt, or de-salinates them, while still leaving enough salt in them so that they are nicely flavored.

From the rest, use one of the following cooking methods -- not all!

Step 3a: Cooking Method 1, Wrapped Poaching

Once the chicken is soaked, it's time to cook them finally! This is the basic boiling or poaching method that is used in the original torihamu recipes.

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Once it's come to a boil, reduce the heat to the lowest setting possible.

In the meantime, wipe the excess moisture off each chicken breast thoroughly with kitchen or paper towels. Lay each breast flat on a piece of microwave-safe plastic wrap/cling film. At this point, you can add some herbs or seasonings if you like. For instance, if you marinated your chicken with some thyme, add a bit more thyme here (though the chicken itself will have a subtle thyme flavor from the marinating, so you can just leave it plain if you like).

You may want to tie something around the twisted ends for extra security, but this is not totally necessary. To make the chicken really keep a nice round shape, wrap some kitchen twine or string around it.

Put the wrapped and tied up chicken into the hot and barely simmering water. Cook for 5 minutes, then put a tight fitting lid on the pot and turn the heat off. Leave the chicken to poach for at least an hour. Some people recommend leaving the chicken in until the water has cooled down, but I prefer to take it out before that.

Step 3b: Cooking Method 2, Unwrapped Poaching

Alternatively, you can skip the plastic wrap and just poach the chicken breasts naked. This results in slightly less finely textured torihamu, but you get an added bonus - the cooking liquid can be used later as stock for other dishes. It's also the most fuss-free method since there's no tying and wrapping.

Bring a pot of water up to a boil as with Step 3a, with some salt added -- about the strength you might use for cooking pasta. You can also add some aromatic vegetables here, such as leek, parsley, fresh ginger, and so on for extra taste if you like.

Once the water has come to a boil, lower the heat and put in the chicken breasts. Cook for 5 minutes, then put a tight fitting lid on the pot and turn the heat off. Leave the chicken to poach for at least an hour, then take out the chicken and allow it to cool outside of the liquid.

Step 3c: Cooking Method 3, Oven Baking

This is my favorite cooking method, because I think it results in a much finer textured torihamu.

Preheat the oven to 120 °C / 250 °F. Yes, it's quite a low temperature - you'll be cooking the chicken slowly, so that it doesn't get dried out. Line a baking sheet with kitchen cooking parchment or a non-stick baking liner, or lightly oil the sheet.

After washing and soaking the chicken breasts, wipe off any excess moisture with paper towels. You can roll up the chicken breasts and tie them up with kitchen twine to get a nice round shape, or just leave the breasts as-is. Put the breasts on the lined baking sheet.

Rebecca from New Zealand sent in her photo of a properly tied-up chicken breast. Thank you Rebecca!! (I confess that I usually just wind the string around and around the breast rather sloppily.)

Bake the chicken breasts for 35 to 40 minutes, until the surface is a very light brown. (The exact and squeamish amongst you may want to check the internal temperature with a meat thermometer; it should have reached 73 °C or 165 °F.) Take the chicken out and leave to cool on a plate.

So how does the chicken turn out?

Here is a closeup of poached torihamu, using method 3a. The black specks are black pepper by the way.

The flavor of poached torihamu is subtle but good. Poached torihamu is much improved with a little soy sauce and wasabi (wasabi joyu), or even a bit of sriracha sauce, ketchup, etc. Poached torihamu makes terrific chicken salad.

And here's how the oven baked torihamu looks, using the oven baking method.

As you can see, there's a subtle pink flavor, and the texture of the meat is finer. It really does have the texture of some commercially available chicken cold cuts - but with no additives or mystery ingredients! Baked torihamu is great without any additional sauce and such (it's a bit saltier I find than the poached kind) and in sandwiches. They are a great bento protein just as-is, and you can also add it to stir fries and such.

Keeping the torihamu

Torihamu will keep for up to a week in the refrigerator. This makes it ideal for people watching their weight who rely on chicken breast a lot, students, or of course, you, the bento maker! Torihamu can also be frozen very successfully. Just wrap each one individually, and take out to defrost in the refrigerator some hours before you will need it rather than in the microwave, to preserve the texture.

Some suggested ways to eat torihamu

Just slice and eat (or pack into a bento box) as-is!

If it is lacking in salt for you, try dipping the slices into a little soy sauce with wasabi or mustard

Make a very tasty chicken salad from it

The roasted version in particular makes great sandwiches

Serve sliced on crackers or on its own as hors d'oeuvres or apero

Slice and serve on a bed of greens

Cut up and use in stir-fries, fried rice, etc. as you might ham

Suggested schedule for making torihamu so you have a good supply for a week of bentos

Buy your chicken breasts on Thursday (or defrost them)

Salt and honey or sugar them on Thursday evening

Marinate from Thursday evening to Saturday evening or Sunday morning (a few more hours won't make a big difference)

Cook on Sunday

Enjoy throughout the week (freeze the excess)

Variations

You can marinate the chicken for less or more time, but no less than 5 hours and more than 72 hours or 3 full days. If you only marinate it a short time, you can skip the soaking in water/de-salinating process, but the chicken will not have as full a flavor. If you soak it for a long time, increase the de-salination soaking time to up to 2 hours.

You can use sugar (for every 1 tablepoon of honey suggested in the basic recipe, substitute 1 1/2 tablespoons of sugar) - white, brown or whatever you have - instead of the honey. You can try other sweeteners too, but I would suggest staying away from artificial sugar substitutes. And try whatever spices and herbs appeal to you! My favorites are thyme, tarragon, and rosemary, though I think my favorite addition to the salt and honey is just some black pepper.

55 comments

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Maki,
This method is embodying many elements of sous vide, the current darling of some of the high tech chef's. I have become interested and tried a few experiments and am looking forward to discussing here when I have a little more experience.

Totally unimportant, but for the record "ni channeru" (2ch.net) and "futaba channeru" (2chan.net) are actually separate sites. 2ch is is more widely used, while futaba has a more specific audience and is the one that actually inspired 4chan.

You are right...though both sites operate with a similar infrastructure I believe (anonymous/no registration needed...but anyway, I've corrected the above accordingly (besides it's not that relevant to the recipe per se ^_^)

Alternatively, after the curing step (the salt/honey etc) you can hot smoke it instead of poaching or baking it. I do this in my smoker (made from a rubbish tin) but you can do it in a wok on the stove, as described here or here. Just keep the dry heat going for as long as it takes for the chicken to be cooked, it's just like the oven cooking method except with smoke.

Nice post! I was wondering...can you elaborate a bit more on the tying of the chicken to make it perfectly round/oval shape. I saw on your picture that the chicken looks nice and oval shaped. Although I have kitchen twine at home, I have never used it....

Hi Wakkun! I will try to add a picture the next time I make it, but basically you roll up the chicken as you would a sleeping bag, then wind the string round and round it to secure it. You could also secure it with toothpicks, but the string is less fiddly and not likely to fall apart.

I always find chicken breasts boring and tasting like nothing so, I'm giving it a try, and i hope my choice of dried herbs will do well with it. I made 1 batch with oregano and 1 batch with basil and they've just gone into the fridge until monday. I'll report back when it's fully cooked! ^^ Thank you for the recipe!

I've been slowly dipping my toe into bento, mostly for the easy portion control and for the fun of trying new recipes, and I *love* this site. Thanks for posting such great stuff so often, maki!

This recipe though, too much hassle. I didn't have honey so I used agave syrup, and I didn't add any herbs other than pepper. It came out delicious, but all the wrapping and tying was just too much of a pain. Plus the chicken came out all wet, I must have had some little rips in the plastic wrap or something. Definitely something I'm glad I tried and will enjoy eating this week, but won't be doing again.

I do agree it is a lot of work...so it really makes sense to make if done in quantity, like 4-6 pieces at a time, and the extras frozen I think. Also, if you find it came out too wet, try the roasting option! I prefer this myself over poaching it.

I have the chicken breasts marinating in the fridge right now. Can't wait to try rolling it into sort of a sausage with the twine tomorrow. It will definitely be a challenge. Thanks for responding so promptly earlier when I posed a question.

I made two batches of two breasts each. One batch I marinated with the honey, salt and 5 spice powder. I poached that (did try my hand at tying the breast, not too bad looking).
My second batch, I marinated with honey, salt and cayenne pepper, paprika, and some thyme. This one I oven roasted in my toaster oven. Did not have a thermometer so couldn't test the internal temperature. This batch the meat looked rosier in color.
Both of them I did not try to eat hot but let it cool in the fridge and ate it during dinner the next day.
I did like both textures but am leaning towards the 5 spice powder more...cuz I really like the subtle anise flavor of the chicken.
Today for lunch, I will be making some soba noodles and slicing the chicken in it along with some veggies.

I was wondering where to get microwave safe plastic wrap - those in the store I found did not state whether they were. Since you're in Switzerland could you tell me what you use? I'm in Germany, so hopefully I could find it, too. I'd really like to try this out!

interesting, i'll have to play around with this... although i'll have to go the oven route for now, my kitchen isn't really heated and this time of year and i think even a large pot of water would cool too fast to be confident about the chickens being fully cooked..
the technique reminds me of something between http://allrecipes.com/recipe/Roast-Sticky-Chicken-Rotisserie-Style/Detai... and a brined chicken, both of which i've made and enjoyed (with whole chickens and pieces).
i think the key to the texture is definitely the low and slow approach to cooking. i'd wager the extra rotisserie style seasoning i have kicking around with a bit of extra salt and some brown sugar (no honey handy) will make an interesting "ham".... could always try a honey glazed ham technique when they're done too (they glaze a cooked ham and caramelize it with a torch for the commercial ones)

WOW! Just took my torihamu out of the oven and it looks beautiful! I sneaked a lil snacking piece off the end and it is delicious. I did two different types, wrapped them with string and baked them as per method C: one with just the plain seasonings and one using thyme and brown sugar instead. Didn't taste the thyme one yet but this recipe is so cool! I'm so glad to have another way to cook 'boring' chicken! What a great addition to my johbisai! (and btw...i think is DOES taste a little like ham!)

This recipe is definitely on my short-list for my next cocktail party. (I am envisioning little Torihamu-Cranberry-Relish Canapes.) But I am such a klutz with kitchen twine that I am wondering if, for the oven method, would wrapping the chicken in cheesecloth secured at the ends be tight enough to form the torihamu. What think you all?

I just put mine in the oven, and since I didn't have any twine on hand I wrapped it tight in aluminum foil to make a tube of chicken, then I crumpled the ends and bent them in, and poked a few holes in the top for steam release. It seems like it's holding pretty tight at the moment!

While this looks delicious and all, the only thing it has in common with ham is the salt. Ham is salted, smoked, and cured (usually for 3-9 months), and the pink color is derived from sodium nitrate. On another food-quality note, chicken purchased in the US should only ever turn out dry if you cook it to death. Since people have developed an irrational fear of cooking meat properly, the meat industry in the US has responded by adding sodium phosphate to most commercially sold chicken. This helps the meat remain moist and flavorful if it's overcooked a bit.

Personally, my favorite way to make chicken is just to roast a whole one with a little garlic and salt. It tastes fantastic and is pretty cheap.

You say to roll it up like a sleeping bag, but show a photo of the chicken laid out flat and tied up. As I can not find any cooking string and hope to use foil in the oven, does it matter which way it is cooked?

It turned out perfect after an extra half an hour in the oven. I think my chicken was a little large, and my oven too pathetic. :p I used a bit of 5 spice and it is delicious in my bento box, or chopped up and added to noodle soup!

I just made this using the roasting method, honey, rosemary and black pepper. I was too impatient to do the desalinization step, and was afraid it would be too salty, but actually it is just perfect. It tastes very similar to one of my favorite hams. It has a wonderful texture and just the right moisture level. I can't wait to have it on a sandwich tomorrow.

Maybe your chicken piece was bigger than the one I suggested - did you weigh it before (or look at the weight on the package)? It's ok to cook for longer if it is still undercooked when you poke into it.

Hm...the pieces were just around the same size as the ones you recommended. I bought a pack weighing in at around 27oz and there were 3 chicken breasts that were about the same size). My torihamu looked similar to the one pictures at the top of your post, including the little pink specks of blood you can kind of see. I wasn't too comfortable with the idea, so I did cook it for longer, but it was considerably longer (30 more minutes?). And towards the end, I even turned up the heat because I was getting hungry and I wanted to speed up the process. =3
I think the texture suffered a bit, but it's still delicious. And although it's a bit more "solid," it is still juicy. Hard to believe it's chicken breast...

i'm thinking doing this on a fish... like this (http://www.cooking-at-home.com/wp-content/images/mahimahi2.jpg), cooking it the same way as torihamu with step 3a or 3c.
i think it would turn out great... im currently experimenting torihamu, then im thinking the same for my fish.
think going to try it next week.

I tried this out last weekend using the poaching method A, without string as I wasn't able to buy any. I also forgot to put herbs and black pepper in the marinading stage, but I put in some oregano just before rolling the chicken.

It came out looking moist and good, although when I was slicing it they sort of fell apart. Perhaps because of the lack of string? It was actually 3 little breast fillets that weighed a total of ~250g. I'm thinking maybe that contributed to the falling apart.

They tasted interesting. I'm not really used to eating anything poached, so this is a fresh change to my usual viand.

Love this recipe. Chicken comes out firmer than usual and more flavorful. I've found that brown sugar is easier to work with than honey. You can mix up the sugar, salt, and spices in the bag and then it's easy to "wiggle" the chicken around the bag to evenly coat it. It's harder to do with honey because the cold chicken causes it to clump up.

I've cooked it by steaming in a pressure cooker and baking at the low temp. The baking is interesting, it dries out the surface so it stays a dark, raw-looking color--kind of like a ham rind, actually. But I took the temp and it is cooked. This gives the densest, most ham like texture. I've also tried baking in the oven, low temp, wrapped in parchment paper. This keeps the surface moist and makes it cook a bit faster.

Pressure cooker is fastest (great for the heat of the summer!) and the chicken comes out only a little less dense. There is a definite learning curve, though--I've over-cooked MANY breasts learning how long it takes.

I tried this, the baking varriety and was very happy with the results! i was almost worried the rolled up chicken would not piec together but apparently it did. I didn't have kitchen twine, so i used crochet yarn and it worked just fine.

I tried marinating it with Herbs de Provence and it almost tasted like a fancy pork cutlet! haha
I also tried it with a Cajun spice mixture, but the chicken tasted more like ham/cured chicken with a bit of spice. The Herbs de Provence one won hands down!

Thank you, i'm so glad to be able to pack my guy a healthy 'ham' in his bento!

Hello, I would like to know - looking at picture of cooked torihamu in oven, there is noticable pieces of spices on surface and also at picture of uncooked torihamu going into oven there is some spice. Where it did come from? After marinate and wash and de-salinate, there is no spice on meat, just flavor inside. You spiced it again after de-salinate?